“Nightswimming deserves a quiet night.”

I had plans to talk about the most gorgeous wedding in the world that was on My Fair Wedding with David Tutera [The “Cowboy Bride” episode], but honestly, the only thing on my mind right now? Exhaustion.

Yesterday was our pre-camp day for band camp. Band camp starts on Monday, but they got done with Rookie camp early, so we had a '”pre-band camp” practice day that was from 8 to 5. Oh. My. God. We were out in the Georgia summer sun from 8 to 12 yesterday, which doesn’t sound like a really long time, but, trust me, when we’re out there it feels like days. Luckily we spent the last half of our day in the band room, but we were standing the whole time, so it wasn’t a lot better.     

When I got home, though, one of my fellow bandies called and said that they were having an impromptu post camp pool party. So a group of us chilled out in the pool from about 8:30 to 11 last night. It was so great. When it got dark, they don’t have outside lights, so we were just floating along in the moonlight. It was so relaxing, and the water loosened up a lot of kinks that I would definitely be feeling this morning.

I’m going to nerd out for a minute. Bear with me.

Our show is going to be amazing this year. I don’t know the official show title, but it is latin themed. Just knowing that didn’t make that much of a difference to me, but when we played the music yesterday…oh man. It is so good. There’s nothing like latin music to give you energy and make you want to dance. Its a great mixture of salsa music and kind of a matador type feel.

Our band used to be nationally recognized and really big. That was until the band director at the time was found….fraternizing… with the band secretary in the janitor’s closet. How cliché can you get? Of course, both of them were immediately let go. That was the year before I got into high school.

For my freshman year, a former band director, who had retired years before and whom the band room is named after, came back for a year while they found a replacement. He was really cool, and everyone liked him, but you could tell that he kind of wanted to go back to his retirement.

Sophomore year, the new band director that the administration found took over. She…was evil. Not only that, but she had no idea what she was doing. She singlehandedly destroyed our band and our spirits. After forcing our beloved assistant director and secretary to resign, most of us quit the band in protest, leaving the band smaller than it had been in decades. The last week of school, the administration finally asked her to leave after taking her side the entire time.

So this is my first year back, and that scared the bejeezus out of me, but I love it again. That spirit is alive again, and that’s the best thing ever.

 

Band has been involved with all of the best and worst times of my high school career. I have met some of the best friends that you will ever find here. There’s never a dull moment.